Week 3 - Obedience Brings Blessings! / I Am Not a Frog!

Tervetuloa minun kirjeni, jokainen!

I honestly had no idea what to call this email, so the two subject finalists have both been displayed. Whichever one you like better, you can have it. Both are true!

This week has been one of flying tomatoes and steady progress. It's a parable I just made up right now. Tomatoes don't normally fly, but I don't normally speak Finnish! Finnish being ridiculously hard, and tomatoes being ridiculously hard to make fly, the two are basically the same. You have to be diligent if you want to do it! As I've done such, I've been able to make my Finnish fly and my tomatoes speak. 

That was an awful parable, so I'll try to make the rest of the email better.

Last Thursday I decided that I was a twig and needed to get ripped, so I lifted weights! Then came the eating a bunch of meat part. I think I ate around maybe three ounces of chicken and half a potato that night, so, uh, we'll see how that goes. The problem is that night I got sick and haven't been much better since soooo exercising is a bit tough at the moment, since I just cough a lot. Oh well. We taught Miro that night and it went pretty well!

Friday I memorized some verbs. Woo. We use an acronym entitled HAVE YOU SLAPT JJAMS and it works surprisingly well! 

Saturday our lesson wasn't as great. I got too caught up in speaking Finnish almost as rapidly as I could speak English and totally didn't invite the Spirit. 

On Sunday a number of things happened: I was the chorister in Sacrament, taught my district about obedience, was the subject of an object lesson in Priesthood, sang 1st tenor in the MTC choir (converting from bass, whee), watched the UVU President give an awesome devotional, and saw Meet the Mormons 2! Such a wonderful day.

On Monday the English speaking missionaries who entered the MTC with us left. Sigh. It's okay, though, because Finnish is still coming more and more every day! I still can't wait to get out into the field, though. In our lesson that night, I wanted to badly to have the Spirit, unlike our last lesson, so the whole time I was pleading that Miro could feel it, because he was struggling, and then I felt that I should bear my testimony about the Atonement, so I did. And let me tell you, there is no substitute for the Spirit. No amount of stellar Finnish from me or Elder Skinner could've achieved what the Spirit did that night. We all felt the truth of it, that Christ really did suffer for our ignorance, because He loves us.

On Tuesday ELDER STEVENSON CAME!!! It was a wonderful devotional, he talked about how amazing Preach My Gospel is and how we can better use it. I was so enlightened. I was also singing in the choir, and got on the big screen more than once!! The cool thing is that it was being broadcast to all the other MTCs, so they all saw us sing. We sung Hope of Israel, and it's wonderful, we who know the truth of the gospel really are the hope of Israel. Ask yourself, you being the hope of Israel, knowing the truth of the gospel, what are you going to do about it? I exhort all of you to don't falter, fight for your brothers and sisters. We aren't fighting a physical enemy. We're fighting FOR each other. I'm going out to Finland to get Satan off the backs of my brothers and sisters. What else can we all do? I'd invite you to think about that, ye hope of Israel.

Wednesday we taught at the TRC again! That's where we teach Finnish-speaking volunteers, typically members. The Spirit and Gift of Tongues came to both me and my companion, and we had a blast. I can't wait to be in the mission field.

This morning we went to the 7:00 session, and I went to the BYU Student Health Center to get some medicine, but they sent me back to the MTC to get something so I have to go back tomorrow morning. Now I'm here! Whee! I love my mission, and even though I've only been out three weeks and a day, I know that I've been changed forever. I love this gospel like I never have, and I love being a missionary.

Minä rakastan te kaikki! Minä haluan teille on tosi hyvä viiko!

I love you all! I want you all to have a super great week!

--

Elder Hancock

Week 2 - Kärsivällisyys eoisyksessä!

Terve, kaikki! 

If you're one of the 7.5 billion people in the world who don't speak Finnish (unlikely chance, I know, but BOY SCOUTS ARE PREPARED HOOOOYAH) then you're probably wondering what my subject line means. Kärsivällisyys eoisyksessä means 'Patience in Progression' and it's sort of become my motto this past week. With all the things we want to achieve in our futures (e.g. for me, learning Finnish fluently) we can sort of get caught up for a bit and forget that to get to those points we need to work on the present! So recognizing that true progression takes patience this week has been great for me, since growing up I had a problem with patience, wanting to do everything now now now.

Also, I realized that I added around ten of you to my contacts in MyLDSMail but then totally forgot to add you to my group email list! So I took care of that, and if you'd like to see what I wrote last week (or even before then, my thoughts before my mission and random entries) I have this mission blog!!! My Mom keeps it up for me now (thanks mom) so you can check out any week if you want.

Aside from that, I'd like to share a couple things about MTC life! First, we are not only allowed but encouraged to check our emails often, so even though I can't actually write until P-day, I definitely see all of your emails. That's been great. We have vending machines here and they're heavenly. I actually think they may be a lesson on frugality in disguise, since we only get six dollars to use a week and they have super good stuff. I also think that sending my pictures in the same email could be causing some problems for some people so I'm going to be doing that separately from now on.

Anyway, on to my week! I'll try and shorten it up a bit this time buuuuut we'll see how that goes.

Last Friday I became a basketball legend. I'm basically LeBron James now. Haha not really, but for some reason I just got way more competent at basketball this week. Also, the new buildings were dedicated on Friday! That was so cool! President Eyring came. He brings in the Spirit really well and he's very obviously a man of God. Anna turned out to be our teacher! That was pretty wild. Sometimes the investigator really is the teacher! *shrug* She's Sister Ross now, and she's so great. Other than that, we had pizza that day! It must've been good, because I wrote it in my journal.

On Saturday I wrote my first talk in Finnish! A good chunk of it was me quoting President Uchtdorf (I love him so much) but I was pretty proud of it. It was about obedience, which to us as missionaries is absolutely paramount.

Sunday was mahtava (awesome in Finnish)! I taught the lesson in Elder's Quorum, about the restoration. We spent a lot of time on how Satan fell upon Joseph Smith as he was praying, and how Joseph Smith exerted all of his energy to call upon God and was delivered. We need to do the same, when we have trials or darkness in our lives, we need to call upon God and He will help deliver us. We also had a devotional from Brother and Sister Dalton (She used to be the general Relief Society President). They talked a lot about missions, and we all loved it. We then watched the Mountain of the Lord video (about the construction of the Salt Lake Temple) and had a wonderful discussion on God's love. We also had our nightly Sermon on the Bed (our zone does it, every night someone different gets on a top bunk with the rest of our zone crammed in the room and that person gives a thought). It was about Christ being our big brother who went out to serve a mission, and we really missed him. We heard about him being persecuted by the people he was serving and he was killed by them. The people our big brother was serving killed him. Our big brother was killed on his mission for us. That really touched me and I cried a bit.

On Monday we got a new investigator! He's actually our teacher Veli Ryan, but he portrays a man named Miro. We already love him. He's really shy but he loves families so we focus our lessons on that a lot. Our Sermon on the Bed that night was about how God sees us as His children and He wants the very best for us, He loves us and wants to help us.

Tuesday was bittersweet. One of the elders in our mission went home. Interesting story, so I had no idea that he was going to leave, but that night I had a dream that he left and that the Finnish missionaries were connected with and comforted by an older man in a suit and told that we had the strength to make it through our own missions with Heavenly Father. Well, I woke up and the elder had left at 3 am, and that night our devotional was with a Seventy who served his mission in Finland. He gave us so much strength, and by the end we knew that even though we didn't know everything we knew enough to serve a mission, and that God loved us and would strengthen us. I was able to share that in our district discussion that night and we all felt the Spirit. 

Wednesday we taught Finnish speaking members (who weren't our teachers) for the first time... and lo and behold who do we end up teaching but my companion's cousin!! It was great. We taught two lessons and they both were great. 

Thursday (today) we woke up early to get to 7:30 session. Quote of the day: why in the blasted tarnation are we up at six am, what am I, a shepherd? Yes you are, Elder!! Someone forgot to tell him why we woke up at six. Temple breakfast was greeeeat. We exercised for a bit, had lunch, and now I'm here!

I love this gospel so much. It's true, I know it. The Holy Spirit is real and touches our hearts if we seek it. There really is meaning to this life, and Christ really is our Savior and King, God's Son, our big brother, who loves us and died for us. He died for us. He. Died. For. Us. A perfect man. Serving in his place has got to be on of the most humbling things ever, but with His help I can help other people in Finland feel His love too. 

Have a fantastic week, everyone!!!

--

Elder Hancock


From Mom:
Our friend Brigham Taylor who used to live here in Rexburg (he has kids that are my kids' ages) texted me yesterday with a picture of him standing with Elder Hancock at the MTC, texting me as they stood there together.  Brigham was at the MTC doing some training for senior missionary couples and just happened to run into him.  It was such a wonderful surprise.

Week 1 - CALIFORNIA BABY and the MTC!

Don't worry about the subject line, I didn't leave my mission and run off to California! Well, not for very long, anyway. :) This week has been amazing!!

Last Wednesday we got in and immediately started working on Finnish. I was like "ah ah ah!" but it's been great! That night was fine but my mind was so full it was tough to get to sleep.

A week ago (Thursday) I was sitting in our branch meeting super tired and wondering if I'd be able to survive the next two years being so overwhelmed with new things when I got called to be the District Leader! That was quite humbling of an experience, I'll tell you what. But I've loved serving the elders and sisters in my district and have come to love them so much.

Friday was pretty full! Finnish went super well. The others elders seem to always ask me questions about Finnish which is pretty cool at some times and a little stressful at others, but I'm so glad I spent so much time studying the language before coming out here to the MTC.

Saturday was Oliver's birthday! Shout out to him for being 16! He's single as pringle, ladies, so don't be shy. I taught my first lesson (in Finnish, no less) that day! It went really well, although I couldn't remember the word for 'read' (lukea) so I sat there for five seconds trying to figure out how to get our investigator Anna to read the Book of Mormon, so I eventually just went 'minä haloan sinua katso kaikki Mormonin Kirja, okei?' which means 'I want you to look at all of the Book of Mormon, okay?' It probably seems a little trivial but it cracked me up, possibly because I was waving my arms around trying to describe it while I was speaking.

Sunday was sooo looong. Fast Sundays are something else at the MTC, goodness gracious. I couldn't eat food so I consumed Finnish all day and felt like I had a headache. We had a lot of meetings, but in Sacrament meeting the Weegies (Norwegians) and Swedes, who are in our branch, sang the EFY melody of As Sisters in Zion/We'll Bring the World His Truth in Norwegian and Swedish with English for the last verse which was so beautiful that I literally lost it at the end and became a shaking fountain of salty tears but it was okay because I wasn't the only one!! If you want to hear what the song sounds like it's on YouTube. Also, we had a devotional from President and Sister Martino (MTC President and his wife) and that was fantastic. We then watched Elder Bednar's address to the MTC some years ago entitled the Character of Christ. It was phenomenal. The essence of the talk is that without Christ's outstandingly, completely perfect character of selflessness, the Atonement could not have occurred. There's a shortened version of it on YouTube because he gave a similar address at BYUI, and I would highly suggest finding it. I can't even explain the Spirit that comes from that talk.

Monday flew by. I finally started to recognize that missionary life IS my life, and once I had that ingrained into my mind, my outlook got a whole lot brighter. I don't have to be perfect at Finnish, even though I certainly was trying to, because I just need to bring in the Spirit. THE SPIRIT IS THE TEACHER! :) Speaking of teaching, we taught another lesson on Monday! Finnish just came to me and I didn't have any problems with it, which I thought was nice being in here for five days! The gift of tongues is so real, my friends. If we live worthily, desire righteously, ask sincerely, and act with totality, we all can access it. The Weegies and Swedes left on Monday, which was sad, but they're in a better place. I'll miss playing volleyball with them.

Tuesday was LA DAY! We woke up at 2 am and somehow got ourselves dressed and over to the travel office to get on a bus. We got to the SLC airport and realized that Elder Christensen had forgotten his driver's license! Whoops. We said a pretty intense prayers that it would work out. He got in (yay) and we flew to LAX, where our shuttle was nowhere to be found. It was supposed to be there twenty minutes before we were. We waited for 45 minutes and said about five prayers in that time when it showed up! We drove to the consulate and saw the LA temple, which was cool, and met with this lady about three minutes each who took our fingerprints and then we were done! So our phone stopped working and we had no idea what to do, since our itineraries dropped off at that point, and we said another prayer, worked some weird things with the phone, and it started working again! We called Church Travel and told them that we were Finnish missionaries stranded in the middle of Los Angeles and they told us they had scheduled a bus for us, coming two hours later. Soooo we got some food and studied, and met an ex-Mormon who a pretty nice guy (I think he left when he was about thirteen, he told us about being a deacon and doing baptisms for the dead) and eventually got back to LAX, where we met two Finnish ladies and a Finnish RM! That was so cool. We got back to SLC around 7:30 and got some burgers, then made it back to the MTC around 9. The same missionary who had been so happy about "leaving this spirit prison" that morning was equally happy about returning, we were all so tired.

Yesterday (Wednesday) was awesome! We got some new Swedes and Weegies (including Sister Julia Kimball from Rexburg). I jammed my finger playing basketball so I ran for exercise time, which was pretty nice, although the corners on the track are so tight that any mile under six minutes makes you feel like you're going to fall down. I got to play the piano in the new building, which I LOVED, I LOVE THE PIANO, I FELT THE SPIRIT SO STRONGLY AHHH, so that was great. ;) I taught Anna (our investigator) again today and my Finnish went so well, I had zero problems whatsoever, even when we extended the baptismal invitation and she asked why she needed to be baptized again, she'd been baptized as a baby. I went on this thing about asking her if God is a God of order, and if being a God of order, which she had said he was, would he have mutilple churches on the earth or one? So if like Christ says in Johanneksen Kirja (the book of St. John) that we need to be baptized in order to return to Taivallinen Isä (Heavenly Father), would he want priests of the world determining how baptism was to work or determine it himself? He would determine it himself, so I then talked about Priesthood authority being restored with Joseph Smith, which allows order to come to the baptismal process. This was all in Finnish!!! I wasn't even paying attention to trying to look for words (well, maybe once or twice) and asked her if she felt that the Book of Mormon was true (since God has one church and our church has the Book of Mormon), by really studying (not just reading, that never works) all of it and doing as Moroni says and asking God if it was true, if she would be baptized? And she said yes!! So in my closing prayer (again, in Finnish) I poured out my soul asking Heavenly Father to tell her that it was true as he had told me and started crying, and then when I got back upstairs to our classroom, excused myself and started crying again. I felt the Spirit so strongly, and it didn't matter that I was speaking in Finnish, it was the same true gospel. If you're wondering if you should serve a mission, this one week has already been the best week of my life, and Heavenly Father will bless you so, so much for it.

That night, at dinner, President and Sister Martino with their grandchildren came at sat with my companion and I! We talked to them for about 45 minutes, it was so cool. We talked to them about their missions, being the MTC President, Finland, why we came to serve missions, and taught their grandchildren some Finnish, which they loved (they were all about three to six years old, so so cute, I love kids). That was a wonderful experience.

So overall, I love it here. My district, and well as the Danes and some other missionaries, here, are so wonderful. We're all working together to learn how to serve best our Savior and King. I am so beyond humbled to have His name on my chest every day. I love Jesus Christ so much, with all my heart, and even though none of us are perfect or have perfect Finnish or even perfect testimonies, Christ is perfect, and nothing else matters to me except doing my best to become like Him.

I love you all!

--

Elder Hancock

Day 1 - The MTC is wild!

Wild with the SPIRIT! I love everyone here. This place is magical. There's a lot of classwork but it's all for good things! The elders in my dorm are fantastic, we're all skinny cross country runners with bad taste in puns so we get along swimmingly (purely metaphorical, as missionaries aren't allowed to swim). My companion is Elder Skinner from San Diego! He actually went to BYUI for a couple semesters so that was neat! We get to fly out to LA next Tuesday to visit the Finnish consulate! That'll be great. Finnish is going so well, I love it. Someone needs to teach the Norwegian elders that the commandment about false gods includes making yourself out to be one... haha no, they're all great! :) And they've been here a while (5 weeks, but they leave next week and we're here for nine). They're really funny. I don't have a bunch of time to email today but so far it's been great, I love you all so much, and the Church is so true!!!! The picture is me with my dorm, I'm next to Elder Skinner.

And from Mom:
Here's a picture of Sam as we dropped him off.  Notice Sam's shoulder angel (Br. Weeks, a volunteer at the MTC).  He's in good hands.  Sam's dad also has a shoulder angel - an unidentified but happy Elder.